Tuesday, February 20, 2018

"Israeli politicians have lashed out at Poland's prime minister over comments he made comparing "Polish perpetrators" of the Holocaust to supposed "Jewish perpetrators." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the comments by his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, were "outrageous." It's the latest spat between Poland and Israel over interpretations of history after Warsaw's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party last month passed a law against public statements that falsely and intentionally attribute Nazi crimes to Poland under the German occupation during World War II."-more

Thursday, February 15, 2018

When I was a kid a popular movie genre was the "swashbuckler." The heroes of these movies were daring, devil-may-care characters who crossed swords with crowds of assailants, evaded capture by swinging on curtains or chandeliers over the heads of their opponents. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise seems to be a contemporary version.

Thursday, February 08, 2018

A former prime minister entered Poland’s fraught debate over a new law that prohibits discussion of Polish collusion with the Nazi Holocaust, bluntly telling a leading newspaper that “of course” there were cases of Poles collaborating in the extermination of the Jews. “Of course Poles took part,” former Polish premier Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz told the newspaper Rzeczpospolita on Wednesday. Emphasizing that “today’s generation is not responsible for what happened,” Cimoszewicz — a social democrat politician who was Poland’s prime minister during the mid-1990s and also served as the country’s foreign minister — urged Poles to talk “openly and honestly” about the experience of Nazi occupation. Among the historical examples he cited were the “tens of thousands” of “szmalcowniks” — Poles who informed on Jews or extorted their property. At least 60,000 Jews had been denounced by Poles to the Nazi Gestapo, Cimoszewicz said.

Ninety percent of Poland’s pre-war Jewish population of 3 million was murdered following the Nazi German invasion of September 1939. The former prime minister also noted that more than 6,000 Poles had been honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. “We are all obliged to remember these heroic people, but we must not allow their heroism to cover the crimes and wickedness of a much larger group of Poles,” he continued. “Antisemitism was and remains endemic in our country,” Cimoszewicz said. Cimoszewicz accused Poland’s nationalist government of deliberately exaggerating the damage to Poland’s reputation through the use of phrases like “Polish death camp” to describe Auschwitz, the slave labor and execution factory constructed and operated by the Nazi German occupiers near the town of Oświęcim in the south. “Now (Polish PM Jarosław) Kaczyński has caused that phrase to reach thousands of recipients,” Cimoszewicz argued. The decision of Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, to sign the IPN Act, as the Holocaust legislation is known, into law earlier this week proved to “everyone in the world, not only Israel” that the new law “is not a random manifestation of parliamentary madness,” he said.

Cimoszewicz — who in 1997 became the first Polish prime minister to visit Israel — said that Poland’s relations with the Jewish state had been “seriously damaged.” “I am afraid that, to some extent, it is irreversible,” he added. The former premier also predicted that the new law would adversely affect relations with the US, specifically citing the potential impact on Congress of the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) strong opposition to the IPN Act. Describing AJC, which maintains an office in Warsaw, as having been “a very constructive partner of Poland for decades,” Cimoszewicz said that the damage done to relationships such as these would be “felt into the future.” The response to Cimoszewicz’s interview on the Polish right was predictably harsh. One popular columnist and broadcaster, Rafal Ziemkiewicz, denounced the former prime minister and his family as “congenital traitors.”

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

— A runny nose, cough, sore throat, breathing problems, fever, headache, diarrhea: If you came down with these symptoms in the middle of winter, you’d probably assume it’s the flu and take to your bed immediately. Think again.

Another family of viruses, known as adenoviruses, often mimic the common seasonal sickness. Though they are similar, there are differences between the two. Adenoviruses, unlike the flu, are not seasonal and can cause illness throughout the year. And while an adenovirus vaccine exists, it’s available only to military recruits.

What are the symptoms?
“Most of the time, adenoviruses produce influenza-like illness with cough and runny nose and feeling crummy, but you get better,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. “But they can also cause conjunctivitis and, particularly in children, diarrhea.”

Pinkeye (conjunctivitis) is another symptom that can result from an adenovirus infection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other signs of illness include inflammation of the stomach and intestines (gastroenteritis), bladder infections and bronchitis. When your airways become filled with mucus, they may start to spasm, which causes coughing and shortness of breath; this is bronchitis. Some people will develop pneumonia, an infection of the lungs, as a consequence of an adenovirus infection, Schaffner said. “Of all the cases of pneumonia that occur in adults, about 5% are actually probably caused by adenovirus.”

In a worst-case scenario, adenovirus could cause neurologic symptoms, including encephalitis — an inflammation of the brain — and meningitis — an inflammation of the tissues surrounding the brain. This is very rare, says the CDC, and only infants, people with existing respiratory or cardiac disease or patients with weakened immune systems, such as those who have recently undergone chemotherapy, would be likely to develop such serious illness. In extremely unusual cases, an adenovirus infection could result in death. That said, most adenovirus infections are mild, with symptoms usually lasting about 10 days, according to the CDC. And for most patients, home remedies and over-the-counter medicines to relieve the symptoms will be the only treatment necessary.-more

Tuesday, February 06, 2018

Today I am delighted to bring you a free gift from a close friend of ours. Both the LSW and I have counted him as a friend for many years.He runs a "Learn Hebrew Online" program and he's letting us offer it to you FOR FREE!